Recently there has been a picture going around facebook.  It is a grid made of 20 squares.  Each square contains a command such as "tag a person who changed your life " or "tag the person with really nice eyes".  You, the facebooker, are to tag your 'friends' that fit the description in the box. 

Yesterday we went swimming at a friend's house.  The kids had never met my friend before.  As we pulled into the driveway Cooper asked, "Where are we?"  To this I replied, "We are visiting my friend Judy."  Cooper responded with, "Oh. 15015."  You see, 15015 represents the house number on Judy's house.  He will remember this number as being linked to my friend Judy; just as he links KWE 234 with my friend Angela (her license plate) or 718 with my mom (her house number).

As he introduced himself to my friend he made sure that she knew his number (his age) as well as the ages of his little brother and sister, my age and my husband's age (who wasn't even there).  This is one way he describes people in his life.  At this point, if I asked him (about kids in his class), "Who has the best smile?" or "Who is your funniest friend?"  He wouldn't have an answer.  But he could tell you many of their birthdays, or where they fell alphabetically on the class list.

This is one difference between the way he sees people and the way most others (myself included) see people.  We often will classify people by a physical characteristic or by an outward display of their character that appeals / or does not appeal to us in a subjective way.  "Nice eyes", "Big hair", "Smelly kid".

I kind of like the fact that my Cooper sticks to concrete stuff that is not subjective to opinion.  There are certainly drawbacks for a person with autism to struggle with subjectivity, and this is something we work on with Cooper, but I think that our human tendency is to be subjective and opinionated beyond that which is healthy.  At least I know mine is.  So once again I will take lesson from my son.

Peace!